Olympic Village Innsbruck – A Social Hot Spot or a Friendly Neighbourhood?

The Olympic Village is a district of the Tyrolean capital Innsbruck, today home of 7000 people. This district on the eastern outskirts of the city was built to serve as the Olympic Village for the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. It is dominated mainly by the high-rise buildings.

For the Olympic Games in 1964, eight ten-story blocks were built with a total of 689 apartments. After awarding Innsbruck with an organisation of the Winter Olympics in 1976 Olympic Village II with 35 buildings, an additional 642 apartments, a school with gymnasium, an indoor pool, a multi-purpose hall and a leisure centre was added. At peak times 1900 athletes and 3500 officials lived in the village. Because they were built side by side, two parts are no longer distinguished today.

After the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Olympics, the Olympic Villages have been made extremely secure and they are only accessible with the proper identity checks. Innsbruck’s Olympic Village was fenced, alarmed and guarded. It was only allowed to enter the site through a passage, where passport and security checks were carried out.

Today, so called “O-village” is just another residential area of Innsbruck, only a monument with the Olympic rings reminds of district’s Olympic history. However, this area has very bad reputation in the city and it is very often regarded as the social hot spot. Curiosity of the district is the 16 % foreigner’s rate, excluding naturalised citizens. People from 55 different nations live here on a small area, what makes this district as diverse as in the time when it was the home of the best world’s athletes.

The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Pius X, completed in 1960, is an architectural jewel and a landmark of the district. It was built as the sign of the new age with the aim to differ greatly from the typical Baroque churches of Tyrol. Well-known Tyrolean architect Josef Lackner was the architecture who was awarded this task.

Bergiselschanze

Bergiselweg 3, 6020 Innsbruck, Autriche

Das Tirol Panorama

Bergisel 1-2, 6020 Innsbruck, Autriche